The Federal High Court in Abuja has struck out a lawsuit filed by Senator Ned Nwoko seeking to invalidate the emergence of former Delta State Governor Ifeanyi Okowa as the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate for the upcoming Delta North Senatorial election.
Delivering judgment on Monday, Justice Mohammed Umar ruled that the suit was fundamentally defective and could not be corrected through an amendment.
The case, marked FCT/ABJ/CS/1062/2026, listed the APC, Ifeanyi Okowa, and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as defendants.
Nwoko initially instituted the pre-election suit through Dr. Mike Nwoko, who was identified in the court documents as his lawful attorney. He later sought the court’s permission to amend the originating processes to indicate that the action had been filed personally by him.
However, the defendants opposed the request, arguing that the case was incompetent from the outset and could not be revived by amending the documents. Counsel to the APC, Kehinde Ogunwumiju (SAN), was among those who urged the court to dismiss the application.
In his ruling, Justice Umar held that the court documents clearly showed the suit had been filed through an attorney rather than by Nwoko himself.
The judge relied on Section 285(14) of the Nigerian Constitution and Section 88(2) of the Electoral Act 2026, noting that only an aspirant who participated in a party’s primary election has the legal authority to institute a pre-election matter.
According to the court, the right to challenge the conduct or outcome of a party primary is a personal statutory right that cannot be delegated or exercised through an attorney, representative, or agent.
Justice Umar further ruled that if the Constitution or Electoral Act intended to permit such actions through a representative, it would have expressly stated so.
The court also rejected Nwoko’s application to amend the originating summons, holding that an amendment cannot cure a suit that was void from the moment it was filed.
The judge emphasized that a court can only permit amendments where there is a valid and competent case before it, adding that a defective originating process cannot be revived through retrospective corrections.
Consequently, Justice Umar dismissed Nwoko’s application to amend the suit and struck out the substantive case for lack of jurisdiction, ruling that the action was incompetent from its inception.